It has been over three years that Nostalgia Fans Club, an oldies music lovers’ association in Medan held a routine concert named “Tembang Kenangan” in different themes. With the ‘80s legendary jazz artist, Utha Likumahuwa as the event coordinator and Obbie Messakh, a famous Indonesian pop singer as the artists coordinator, the events always brought big numbers of Indonesian’s oldies singers to the city of Medan. Although the events seems a little bit private as a concert was served with invitation only and the committee consisted some of the town’s government officers, this attempt to fulfill Medan’s music lovers’ needs should be especially noted. This time, the events spread its theme to the jazz area, which collaborated with Medan Jazz Club, a jazz café located in one of the town’s mall Deli Plaza, titled “Esok Kan Masih Ada” (taken from one of Utha Likumahuwa’s golden hits), and held in Grand Aston Hotel’s Ballroom. Though Utha’s absence this time might be a little letdown since the titled theme of the event took one of his hits, we still got to see another legendary jazz artists such as Mus Mujiono, Oddie Agam, Ermy Kulit, Iga Mawarni to the Indonesia ’s young jazz talents, Andien.

Medan itself often has a unique way in presenting concerts, where almost everyone here in this town could sing beautifully (some might said these comes from one of its famous Batak culture), and so the artists not only performed but also “competing” with the locals. Before each performers’ appearance, came the town’s talented local performers bringing their own highlights which is especially powerful too. The show started with one of the event’s committee from Medan Jazz Club, Dr. Chandra Syafei, SpOG which is also gifted as a famous local jazz guitarist with the scat ability, and then Andien sang “L.O.V.E” and her own smash hit, “Gemintang”. After Andien, Medan presented the young acapella groups named Diamond Voices who also joined the Indonesian’s Got Talents as one of the participants.

The event went on with the famous singer-writer-record producer, Oddie Agam. On one of his most best selling hit known famously sang by Sheila Majid, “Antara Anyer Dan Jakarta”, Oddie invited the events’ head of the committee, Mrs Vonny Lidya to sing on the stage. Oddie then sang one of Stevie Wonder’s smash hit “Overjoyed” acoustically on piano, and kept the show interactively by asking the town’s governor to sing together. Then he took the committee’s vice president, Prof. Dr. Herman Hariman, Ph.D, up to the stage doing some scat in his other hit “Surat Cinta” that was brought popular by Vina Panduwinata’s golden voice. Then came Maxi, the local performers with his funny dance and beautiful voice sang the Indonesian Malay ballad, “Seroja”, re-arranged in jazz.

The next performer was Iga Mawarni also did the interactive showdownstage with the classic Rod Stewart‘s hit, “Have I Told You Lately” and her groundbreaking hit called “Kasmaran”. Iga also talked about Medan ’s special way of presenting their local performers to entertain the artists themselves. Not only the artists entertained the audiences, but they got entertained too by the local talents. That’s something you should note from the way an event held in Medan. Right after that, Medan ’s PAPPRI (Persatuan Artis Penyanyi, Pencipta Lagu & Penata Musik Rekaman Indonesia )’s head, Yan Suryadharma enlighted the stage with Once’s “Aku Mau” followed by George Michael’s “Careless Whisper”.

“Esok Kan Masih Ada” continued with Ermy Kullit, one of the Indonesia ’s all time best bossanova singer sang four songs including 2D’s “Masih Ada”, her own “Pertama Dan Terakhir” and the classic tunes of “Kasih”. Ermy also told some stories on the stage, about her songs and her recent activity on establishing The Manado’s jazz and the upcoming album altogether. The absence of Utha then brought the Medan Jazz Club’s leadsinger, Faisal sang Utha’s hit, “Bersatu Dalam Damai” as the request of the governor. He sang with strong vocal wonderfully well.

Then the last performer, one that the audiences have waited to see until almost midnight, the famous singer-guitarist Mus Mujiono. As Mus often compared by the legendary George Benson on his strong guitar and scat technique, he sang few of his hits, including “Tanda-Tandanya” and “Arti Kehidupan” which also written by last night’s performing artist, Oddie Agam, and “Satu Jam Lagi”. And so the show ended by other local performers sang “Just The Way You Are” and “Esok Kan Masih Ada” brought by all performers.

As a treat to Medan ’s music fans especiall the jazz lovers, this show as a part of the other “Tembang Kenangan” series has held beautifully outstanding. Though it’ s still like a semi-private concert, maybe in the near future the committee should widen the audience area with bigger publicities for the public. It will pay off since the music fans in Medan begin to show their bigger appreciation these days to the beautiful world called jazz. Just like Mus Mujiono said in the middle of his performance, these kind of events not only has a strong tendency of entertainment, but also can be used as the chance to the local performers to show their abilities, and of course to strengthen their career altogether. Most of all, we still need more of such event like this to open everyone’s eyes, that Jazz Is Alive And Well in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra.

Position: Editor in Chief |
DOB: September 14 |
Occupation: Jazzuality CEO |
You like Jazz because: many reasons, but mostly because this is the music that’s been with me from the moment I was born, and another thing, it’s unpredictable. I love it that way. |
Motto: Nothing is impossible, impossible is nothing.